By fWAR, Guerra has been by far the Brewers worst pitcher among those who remain with the club (happy trails, Neftali). His walk rate (13.5%) has ballooned as has his home run rate (2.36 HR/9); for those of you who aren’t real big math guys, that’s what we in the biz call “pretty bad stuff, eh?” If you’re looking for a reason for optimism, talk to Kyle, because I’ve got nothing. Sorry.

Suter earned himself another spot in place of the injured Chase Anderson with a stellar outing against Baltimore on Monday, striking out eight and allowing one unearned run over six innings. He’ll face a slightly tougher AL East lineup Saturday in the new stadium that I guess we’re just gonna call Yankee Stadium anyway.

Third year starter Servino is in the midst of a breakout season, and he earned his first All-Star appearance with just under 100 innings of 3.52 ERA ball. It’s a big turnaround for a pitcher who was demoted to the minor leagues after just seven starts a season ago.

James has broken out as one of the best starters in the National League in 2017, making good on four years of teasing what could be. Injured co-ace Anderson has grabbed most of the headlines with his flirtation with history, but it is Nelson who sits fourth in the NL in fWAR (Anderson is seventh). Nelson has at least eight strikeouts in four consecutive games, and he owns Milwaukee’s only complete game in the last three years. The NL All-Star voters did not notice, to their detriment.

Tanaka has put together a string of three strong starts after struggling through May and most of June, allowing three total runs over 21 innings and striking out 22. One imagines that this will be the version of Tanaka that Milwaukee will see on getaway day, and can dismiss his more unpleasant season-long numbers.

Series History:

2017: First meetingAll-Time: 184-212 (72-123 in Milwaukee)

This is Milwaukee’s third consecutive series against the Bronx Bombers that they will enter in first place, the previous meetings being in May of 2014 and June of 2011. If you’re the superstitious type, rejoice: it was 2011, not the disaster that was 2014, that saw Milwaukee as the visitors. However, if you’re the superstitious type, despair: no team holds a better home winning percentage against Milwaukee (.369) than the Yankees.

Are the Yankees Good?

Well, they are pretty good. Not as good as the visiting first place team they’ll face in the final series before the All-Star break, but that’s nothing to be ashamed of folks. They of course boast presumptive Rookie of the Year and leading MVP candidate Aaron Judge, who will almost certainly make you curse at least once this weekend. He leads all of baseball in almost everything we have a stat for, and carries an fWAR of 5.5, nearly a win and a half more than any other player in either league. There are allegedly other hitters who play on the Yankees as well, I have not been able to confirm this however.